@karellen said:

It might be a stylistic choice from a director known for his visuals, but it seems to me a large part of the cast consisted of 'ugly' looking, albeit interesting, actors (Johner, gen. Perez, the scientists, Vriess etc). Why that?

It has the signature style of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie). At the end, the film itself becomes uglier with that baby alien thing. Jean Pierre treated this movie by mixing his trademark black comedy and unsettling macabre.

I felt even Sigourney Weaver was a bit ugly in this. Loved the film except for the last 20 minutes.

Usually his movies doesn't have good looking characters but they are quite interesting, like you said. You should try 'Micmacs (2009)'. A very good stylish movie with great characters.

To be honest I thought Weaver looked her best in this one...Also what was up with Dan Hedaya's shoulder fur?

@The_Foxcatcher said:

@karellen said:

It might be a stylistic choice from a director known for his visuals, but it seems to me a large part of the cast consisted of 'ugly' looking, albeit interesting, actors (Johner, gen. Perez, the scientists, Vriess etc). Why that?

It has the signature style of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie). At the end, the film itself becomes uglier with that baby alien thing. Jean Pierre treated this movie by mixing his trademark black comedy and unsettling macabre.

I felt even Sigourney Weaver was a bit ugly in this. Loved the film except for the last 20 minutes.

Usually his movies doesn't have good looking characters but they are quite interesting, like you said. You should try 'Micmacs (2009)'. A very good stylish movie with great characters.

Indeed, a sort of unglamorous gritty realism. I've seen Micmacs, as I'm quite a fan of Jeunet's work (my favourite being City of lost children) :)

Loved the film except for the last 20 minutes.

Yikes. Sorry, but the moment that Dan Hedaya reaches back and pulls a chunk of his brain out and then stares at it cross-eyed, my suspension of disbelief stood up, turned around, slapped me in the face and left the theater in disgust. Up until that point, I thought A:R was nicely stylish, and I loved the design of The Betty. But then that happened, the Aliens got knock-kneed, and Brad Dourif started going full-ham and I was ready to throw in the towel. The disgusting clone room and the Sigourney/Alien baby was just the icing.

Also, if you've ever seen the alternate opening for the movie, in which the camera pulls back from what SEEMS to be an alien but is in fact an ugly bug that is promptly squashed you'd have known from the get-go that they chose the wrong director for an Alien movie. His use of humor and unnatural camera positions were distracting, to say the least. It doesn't help that Whedon's screenplay was an absolute mess.

@howardburns said:

Also what was up with Dan Hedaya's shoulder fur?

LOL. Hedaya's from the Robin Williams school of body hair. Poor guys can go shirtless in the summer and still get asked why they're wearing a winter sweater. I felt sorry for the director, though. I'm sure that he had a helluva time telling whether or not he had the camera properly focused because Dan always looked fuzzy.

@AlienFanatic said:

The disgusting clone room and the Sigourney/Alien baby was just the icing.

For me, that disgusting clone room was the core of the movie's story. The real monsters are the "scientists", their relentless pursuit of a horrible objective, their soulless disregard for the sanctity of human life/dignity, and it is gut-wrenching to imagine what a person who has been cloned might even begin to feel in seeing previous iterations, including one still conscious enough to beg for death to stop the pain.

That scene, for me, stands out as among the most visceral, most emotional, most revolting, vile and loathsome, in the entire Alien franchise, far beyond anything any aliens ever did to human beings.

I've noticed this with some TV series. Dexter, Californication, Girls, Nip/Tuck... they seem to intentionally cast ugly people, and contrast them with a few gorgeous standouts.

@DRDMovieMusings said:

@AlienFanatic said:

The disgusting clone room and the Sigourney/Alien baby was just the icing.

For me, that disgusting clone room was the core of the movie's story. The real monsters are the "scientists", their relentless pursuit of a horrible objective, their soulless disregard for the sanctity of human life/dignity, and it is gut-wrenching to imagine what a person who has been cloned might even begin to feel in seeing previous iterations, including one still conscious enough to beg for death to stop the pain.

That scene, for me, stands out as among the most visceral, most emotional, most revolting, vile and loathsome, in the entire Alien franchise, far beyond anything any aliens ever did to human beings.

I wholeheartedly agree with you on this. Very underrated scene; stand out creepy and memorable that shows how desperate the company was to obtain the alien species. This scene alone almost made A:R a worthwhile film.

Regarding the OP's original question, Winona Ryder and Sigourney Weaver surely balanced out the ugliness of the males?!

@tmdb65271336 said:

Loved the film except for the last 20 minutes.

Sorry, but the moment that Dan Hedaya reaches back and pulls a chunk of his brain out and then stares at it cross-eyed, my suspension of disbelief stood up, turned around, slapped me in the face and left the theater in disgust.

Dude, this is Jeunet's comedic style! It was sort of a nod to the hilarious scene in Delicatessen where one character gets an enormous knife rammed through his forehead, turns around and says to another character "Is there something in my forehead?" (other character shakes nervously) "Is there something in my forehead??" then keels over dead.

This brand of dark humor may not be your cup of tea, it's almost as bizarre as "Airplane!" gags, but it's what makes Jeunet what he is. Granted, it may not have been appropriate in the Alien series which is a very tense, serious, largely humorless story. But then you gotta blame the producers for hiring a director known for his sarcastic comedy.

OP, regarding the "ugly characters", welcome to French cinema ;) I see you're familiar with it already and you named one of my favorite films of all time, City of Lost Children. Have you listened to the commentaries in Jeunet's films? I think it was in Amelie he talks about his use of "ugly" characters. His explanation is, more or less, in France they don't have stunning GQ and Vogue models to choose from, and in fact one of the most beloved actors in France is a guy with only 1 arm (Jamel Debbouze in Amelie). Although he didn't say this, I take it to mean French actors are more known for their talent than their looks.